Going Solo
Page 29
first, average age of, 4, 35, 41, 46, 60
loneliness and, 84, 102
loss of spouse, 158, 160–63
remarriage, 4, 88–89, 91–93, 162, 163, 165
social pressure and, 66–67, 86, 134
women’s status and, 14
Marsh, Kris, 141, 142
McCain, John, 145
McGarry, Kathleen, 162
McKenna, James, 51
Meals on Wheels, 176, 181, 182–83
men, poor, 111–12, 115–22, 190
Méndez-Santiago, Edwin, 180–81
Merton, Thomas, 33
Meyers, N. Marshall, 81
Miljonprogrammet (Million Program), 215–16
monastic tradition, 32–33, 231
Muir, John, 33
Murdock, George Peter, 3
Myrdal, Alva, 215, 217, 224
NCB Capital Impact, 202
Nelson, Margaret K., 153
Newmark, Craig, 132
New York, N.Y., 5, 37–41, 48, 70
elderly in, 180–84, 188
environmental sustainability and, 207
games in, 30
gay men in, 39–40
Harlem, 40, 41, 181, 188
Greenwich Village, 16, 32, 37–40, 98
housing in, 203–7, 224–5, 226
seniors in, 175–79
New York Times, 75, 115, 151, 162, 189, 198
Ng, Andrew, 193–94
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 34
Nitsche, Natalie, 142
Norway, 10
“Not Looking for Love,” 82
Nursing Home Reform Act, 188
nursing homes, 160, 169, 172–74, 228
Obama, Barack, 144, 145, 228
Olds, Jacqueline, 19–20
orangutans, 2
Osgerby, Bill, 44
Paley, William, 2
Paris, 38, 208
Peabody, Elizabeth, 8
pets, 79–81, 194
robotic, 193, 194
Pink, Daniel, 62
Plato, 211
Playboy, 44–45
political issues, 139–45, 146
Politics (Aristotle), 1
Popenoe, David, 213–14
poverty, 223
housing and, 186–87, 203–7, 218–19, 224–26
men and, 111–12, 115–22, 190
seniors and, 179
Portacolone, Elena, 171
Potter, David, 7, 9
prisons, 2–3, 5
Psychiatric Services, 225
Putnam, Robert, 9, 15, 107, 109
Quirkyalone: A Manifesto for Uncompromising Romantics (Cagen), 132
Quirkyalones, 132–35, 153–56
Rand, Ayn, 11
religious faith, 102–3
Republic of Dreams (Wetzsteon), 38
retirement communities, 164–67, 198, 227
Ritter, Bruce, 205
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 23–24, 202
robotics, 191–96, 197
rooming houses, 35–37, 39, 40
roommates, 31, 43, 53–56, 221
Rosenfeld, Michael, 14–15, 31
Ruskin, John, 34
Sackman, Bobbie, 183–84
Sarasohn, David, 47
Scandinavian countries, 10, 222
Sweden, 10, 60, 147, 213–21, 222–23
Schumpeter, Joseph, 11–12, 212
Schwartz, Richard, 19–20
Sederer, Lloyd, 181
self-protection, 111–22
self-reliance, 7–10, 83, 171, 213, 221
“Self-Reliance” (Emerson), 7
Senior Options, 183
seniors, see elderly
Sennett, Richard, 40–41
sex, 14–15, 30, 31, 43, 89, 91–93, 97, 101, 103
Sex and the City, 6, 131–32, 147
Sex and the Single Girl (Brown), 41–44
“Sexless Lives of College-Educated Black Women, The: When Education Means No Man, Marriage, or Baby” (Clarke), 142
Siddhartha (Hesse), 33, 58
Simmel, Georg, 33–35, 232
SimplicITy, 196
Singelringen, 147–48
Single, 83
Singled Out: How Singles Are Stereotyped, Stigmatized, and Ignored, and Still Live Happily Ever After (DePaulo), 21, 150
Single Edition, 74, 148–50
“Single in the City,” 131
“Single Living: How Atomisation—The Rise of Singles and One-Person Households—Is Affecting Consumer Purchasing Habits,” 146–47
Single Mothers by Choice, 78
single-room occupancy hotels (SROs), 111–12, 115–22, 186–87, 190, 203–6, 218, 224–25
“Singles in the U.S.: The New Nuclear Family,” 64, 146
Singleton, Valerie, 196
Singular, 135, 137–38
SingularCity.com, 135, 138
Singular Communications, 135, 136–37
Smith, Sandra, 112
social life, 18, 64, 97–98, 100, 101
communications revolution and, 15
dating, see dating
friends, see friends
seniors and, 161
work and, 62, 63–64
social media, 15, 25–26, 63–64, 98, 107, 110–11, 232
social support, 106–8, 153, 154–55, 163, 190
social withdrawal, 111–12, 117–30
see also isolation
solitude, 110–13, 128, 156, 170, 232, 233
Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems (Ferber), 52
South Korea, 158
Span, Paula, 198
Sparrow, Linda, 194–95
Sparrow, Robert, 194–95
Spock, Benjamin, 51–52
Stanley, Rollin, 208–10
Stansell, Christine, 38
statistics on singles and single living, 4–5
Stein, Gertrude, 37
Stockholm, 208, 213–20, 226
Stockholmshem, 217–18
Stoics, 231
Stone, Linda, 110
Storr, Anthony, 33, 113, 232
suburbs, 49, 186, 207, 208–10, 223, 231
support systems, 106–8, 153, 154–55, 163, 190
Sweden, 10, 60, 147, 213–21, 222–23
Sydney, 208
Symposium (Plato), 211
technologies:
communications, 13, 15, 190–91, 213
robotics, 191–96, 197
telephone, 15, 58, 191
television, 15, 58, 66, 77, 99, 109–10, 119
Thatcher, Margaret, 11
Theocritus, 1
Thistle, Susan, 45
Thoreau, Henry David, 7–9, 33, 58, 232
Thrun, Sebastian, 192, 193
Times Square housing project, 205–6, 225
Tocqueville, Alexis de, 8, 9
Today, 147
Tokyo, 208
transcendentalists, 8–9, 231
travel, 71–73, 148
tribes, urban, 26, 59, 154
United Kingdom, 10, 49, 158, 161
United Neighborhood Houses (UNH), 180–81
universities, 61
housing at, 53–54
urban tribes, 26, 59, 154
Urban Tribes (Watters), 16
Utne Reader, 132
Van Schaik, Carel, 2
Vervoorn, Aat, 33
voters, 143–45
Wahlbäck, Johan, 147–48
Waite, Lind
a, 20–21, 66–67, 82
Walker, Jessica, 180
Walkowitz, Judith, 38
Watters, Ethan, 16, 59, 72–73
Weight Watchers, 148
welfare states, 10, 216, 222–23
Wetzsteon, Ross, 38
Whitehead, Barbara Dafoe, 46
Whitman, Walt, 7, 36
“Wicked Architecture” (Whitman), 36
widows and widowers, 158, 160–63
Wilson, William Julius, 141
Winnicott, Donald, 50–51
Wirth, Louis, 37
women, 13–14, 38, 41–46, 89, 213, 231
Playboy and, 44–45
in workforce, 14, 45–46, 75–76, 115, 154, 186
Women’s Voices, Women Vote (WVWV), 143–45
work, workplace, 13, 59, 61–65, 110–13, 223
discrimination in, 58, 73–74, 135, 140
long hours and, 62, 63, 110
self-employment, 62
social life and, 62–64
women in, 14, 45–46, 75–76, 115, 154, 186
Wright, David, 136–37
Zorbaugh, Harvey, 36–37
ALSO BY ERIC KLINENBERG
Fighting for Air
Heat Wave
* In this book, I use the term “singletons” for people who live alone. “Singles” may or may not live alone (some live with a romantic partner, or roommates, or children), and so not all singles are singletons.
* In this book, I use the terms “old people” and “the elderly” to refer to those age sixty-five and above. The reasons for this have more to do with the statistics on aging, which typically classify people as elderly once they reach age sixty-five, than on an argument about the age when one becomes old.
* Justin is a pseudonym, as are the names of all the singletons who appear in this book, except those who are public figures. Granting anonymity to the subjects of social science research is the standard way of protecting them, and universities typically require scholars to do so.